Newspaper article below provides details of what happened to those who were recaptured after the escape attempt in October 1944. Provided by Steve and Diane Stewart. Steve is the son of Charles A. Stewart, Jr.

October 1945 St. Louis Post Dispatch
St. Louisan whom Japs recapture twice is back home after 5 years
Cpl. Charles Stewart Jr. again meets Marine companion on two escapes – held since Pearl Harbor Day
Marine Cpl. Charles A. Stewart Jr., a prisoner of the Japanese from the outbreak of the war until freed by an American parachute team in China last month, was home in St. Louis today after more than five years.
His long imprisonment, marked by two escapes, an interlude as a fugitive living with Chinese guerillas and periods of Japanese torture, ended August 18, when a United States rescue team jumped into Pekin in North China, he related. He was released with (unclear… looks like “nine”) other Americans held there including four Doolittle flyers. Stewart, 23 years old, returned Thursday, and is spending furlough with his parents, who live at 3501 Itaska street.
“Freed by Grace of Japanese”
When Stewart and the other Americans were let out of their cells in the Pekin military prison, he said, the Japanese major in command told them they were being released “by grace and goodness of the Japanese people”. That was after the parachute team had assumed authority and ordered the liberation.
“The Jap officer” Stewart said, “wanted us to bow and salute him and the Japanese Emperor. We told him nothing doing.”
Stewart told his story at a press conference at Marine Corps recruiting headquarters in the new Federal Building yesterday.
His imprisonment began the days after Pearl Harbor in Pekin, where he was assigned to the American embassy guard. With the start of the war, The Japanese garrison rounded up all Americans. Previously, Stewart had served at the Marine barracks at Tientsin for about 8 months.
Early in 1942, when in a prisoner of war camp outside of Shanghai, Stewart and three comrades made an break.
With Guerrillas 17 days
“We found out when the dynamo wasn’t running and there was no electricity in the wire enclosure,” he recounted. “We hid under some stables near the fence, then we crawled out. We walked all day in the open country. Chinese farmers were friendly. We circles Shanghai, and hiked 50 miles southward.
“By this time, Chinese guerrillas were on the lookout for us, the same as Japs. Their intelligence system was working. Their Scouts picked us up. They were wonderful to us.“
After 17 days, he and the others were recaptured when a Japanese expedition surrounded the guerrilla detachment they were with. Stewart then was “court-martialed, “ he said, and sentenced for four years for “desertion from the Japanese army.”
He was removed to the Japanese interrogation center Bridge House, Shanghai,” he said, “where he spent 73 days of torture. Food was a bowl of rice three times a day. Guards beat and kicked him and ---pings were a regular thing in hours of questioning. Some days even the rice was withheld. He lost  60 pounds.
He was transferred to the Road House jail in Shanghai, and participated in another escape in October, last year. He was captured after a few hours. He was sentenced to an additional 10 --- for “desertion,” he said and a second stay at Bridge Road. He was moved to a Nanking prison, where he remained until August 1 going from there back to Peking.
Met by fellow ex-captives
With him on the first escape and successful on the second was Marine Platoon Sgt. Jerold B. Story of Bloomington, Ill. Story came to St. Louis from Quantico, Va., yesterday to see Stewart. Story who made the successful escape, made his way to Chekiang Province and reached an American base, he said. Later he repatriated.
Stewart was flown back to the United States after the liberation at Peking. He arrived in New York Sept. 5, he said, and was sent to the naval hospital in Norman, Okla., for treatment. He is on a 90-day leave. He says next he is “expected to go to Washington D. C. to clean up my affairs.”
After joining the Marines in Jan-- 1940, he attended Hadley Technical School.


October 1945 St. Louis Post Dispatch
Japanese victims meet at Marine Corps recruiting office in the Federal Building for the first time since October, 1944, when one of them, Marine Platoon Sgt. Jerold B. Story (left), Bloomington, Ill., escaped from the prison camp in Shaghai, where they both were held. Marine Cpl. Charles A. Stewart Jr., 3501 Itaska st., was liberated by American forces last month. The two Marines were taken prisoner at the outbreak of the war at Pekin, China, where they were on guard duty at the American Embassy.


October 1945 (St. Louis) Two Men Reunited Here, Recall Prison Camp Experiences
A tale of capture and torture by the Japanese in the early days of the war when both me were on guard duty at the American Embassy in Peiping, China, and subsequent escapes and recapture, was told here yesterday by two marines who met for the first time since one of them escaped in  October, 1944, from the Japanese prisoner camp where both were held.
As Cpl. Charles A. Stewart Jr. 3501 Itaska st., saw his companion in misery, Platoon Sgt. Jerold B. Story, Bloomington, Ill., for the first time in almost a year yesterday at Marine Corps recruiting Headquarters in the Federal Building, he fell on him with shouts of glee and the surprised remark, “So, you’re still alive!”
There followed a recounting of experiences in which both had shared and each had endured since Story escaped from their prison camp in Shanghai, China, in October 1944.
Taken to the Shanghai camp on February 1, 1941, shortly after their capture in Peiping, both men escaped March 31, 1942, and managed to join Chinese guerrilla forces. However, 17 days later they were recaptured in the Shanghai hills.
Following this, as Stewart tells it, “We were taken to a Japanese Gestapo headquarters in Shanghai where for 78 days we were tortured and then were transferred to a prison camp in another part of Shanghai.”
Both men escaped October 6, 1944, but Stewart was recaptured in a few hours. Story, however, managed to reach Chinese guerrilla forces and eventually made his way to American forces in Chekiang Province, China.
On August 1, 1945, Stewart was transferred to a military prison at Peiping, China, where he was liberated by an American parachute team August 18.


1945-10 (St. Louis) Marine Home; Fled Jap Jail Twice
Captured on the second day of the war with Japan , Marine Cpl. Charles A. Stewart Jr., 23, of 3501 Itaska st., twice was given a jail sentence for escaping from Jap prison camps.
The charge was desertion from the Jap army!
Stewart is home now, on a 90-day leave. He seems trim and fit, although there is a tight look about his eyes and his nerves aren’t too quiet.
But it was only a little more than a month ago that he was freed from a Jap prison at Peiping, China. He was flown to New York September 5, spent a little time in a government hospital and arrived home Thursday.
Visiting is his close friend, Marine Platoon Sgt. Jerold B. Story, 29, of Bloomington, Ill.
Both men, American Embassy guards in Peiping when war struck, were captured together. Twice they escaped together. The first time they were free for 17 days, living with Chinese guerrilla forces near Shanghai.
The second time Stewart was recaptured within a few hours but Story made his way with guerrilla aid to American forces in Chekiang province, China, and was flown home.
“For the first escape we were tortured, tried and finally sentenced to four years in prison for desertion from a Jap army, “ Stewart said yesterday. “Later I got 10 more years, for the second offense.”
“We crawled under an electrified fence one noon on March 31, 1942. Learned a little Chinese and the people guided us.
“We kept asking about guerrillas but naturally no one was anxious to reveal their location. Finally, though, we learned the guerrillas had heard of us and had sent scouts to pick us up. No one in the world could have been more wonderful to us than those guerrillas.”
The men knew at least four of the Doolittle flyers who were stationed at the same camps with them, including Capt. Jay Nielsen, whose experiences now are being published in the Star Times.
“We couldn’t talk with them,” said Sgt. Story. “We were beaten and given water treatment and the marines said, their treatment became more brutal than ever.
“Then at 8 p.m. on August 14, a Jap officer opened our cell doors and ordered us oustside. A Jap major told us that ‘by the grace and goodness of the Jap people you are to be released.’ Then he asked us to salute him and bow to the emperor. We didn’t. We just stood silent. Our reaction to the news was one of extreme numbness. We couldn’t realize it.
“Four days later a parachute team of about eight Americans floated from the sky. They were fired on but didn’t fire back. They just took command, setting up quarters in a hotel. We were released, but the Tokyo flyers weren’t . The Japs said -- ----- ----- -- .“ (words cut off)


1945-10-25 Greenville, Ill. Cpl. Chas. A. Stewart, Jap Prisoner Nearly Four Years, Tells of Tortures
Surviving nearly four years of everything the Japanese could dish out in the way of torture, and becoming one of eight prisoners to escape from Ward Road Jail, the largest prison camp in the world, supposedly escape proof and where 10,000 prisoners were incarcerated, Corporal Charles A. Stewart Jr., of St. Louis, a grandson of Robert Breuer and a great nephew of Mrs. Anna Birnstiehl of this city, recounted some of his experiences to a reporter for the Advocate Wednesday morning. Corporal Stewart, with his father and a friend, Hal P. Mills, former publisher of ---- Shanghai, China, newspapers, spent a few days here the first of the week relaxing, fishing and loafing and visiting, Young Stewart is quite well-known here as he formerly spent his summer vacations with relatives.
Corporal Stewart, now 24 years old, enlisted in the Marines January 15, 1940, at St. Louis and after his basic training was sent to China with Marine replacements in May of that year and was stationed in Tientsin, China. Later he was transferred to Peiping as an embassy guard and was captured there following Pearl harbor. He was then sent to the Woosung prison camp and in the company of three other Marines escaped from this camp March 31, 1942. Their liberty was short; as they were recaptured April 17, about 50 miles south of Shanghai and placed in the Bridge House, known as “the house of torture.”
Held here 76 days he was subjected to beatings, the water cure, kept on a starvation diet of fish heads, rice and a little seaweed now and then, they were later taken to the Kingwang Military Court and there tried for “desertion from the Japanese army,” a trumped up charge, of course, found guilty and sentenced to four years imprisonment.
On July 9, 1942, he with others was transferred to the Ward Road jail, the largest jail in the world, where there were 10,000 prisoners. While this jail was supposed to be escape proof, with no prisoner ever having gotten out, Stewart, with seven others made this escape from this jail October 6, 1944. Three men were successful but the five others, including Stewart were caught at Shanghai, after he had, to put it in his own words “clouted” two Japanese soldiers, who stopped them, in itself a dangerous undertaking.
Asked how they made their escape from the Ward Road jail, he said they had outside help from some Danish boys (Borg Theodore Petersen and Mr. Olafsen), who had been discharged from the prison. They provided them with hacksaw blades and the Yanks were able to saw their way out.
Back to Bridge House they were taken and there subjected to most all tortures in the Jap book, where they were questioned in an effort to make them divulge military information. They were sent back to Kingwang and again tried for “deserting the Japanese army”. This time their sentence was 14 years in prison, although their original sentence had been death.
They were then taken to Nanking to the Japanese military prison on January 19, 1945. This as described by Stewart was a super hell-hole. No heat, no blankets, no beds, no medicine, not enough drinking water to quench their thirst, and very little food. Stewart said his feet nose and ears were frozen as well as being starved and he lost 70 pounds. The treatment by the guards was even more severe here than in other prisons, and they were subjected to severe beatings, administered at the whims of the guards. They were allowed to bathe once a week, in a large tank, after 700 Japs had used the same water. The prison was alive with vermin. When the guards were told that the prisoners were ill, they just laughed. The guards gave orders in Japanese and if you could not understand it was just too bad.  However, Stewart and his buddies were able to speak and understand the Japanese language, which he said took him about a year and a half to master. While in this Nanking prison, the only other Americans outside his own group were four of the Doolittle flyers and J.B. Powell, the New York newspaper man who lost both his legs by having them frozen while in a Jap prison. Powell however was repatriated and came to the states about a year ago.
There were seven men in their cell on January 25, 1945, the cell being 9x14 feet. Due to breaking the rules to talking to one another in the cell, the Japanese officials ordered all windows closed, shutting off what little ventilation they had. In this group were Commander W. S. Cunningham, U.S. Navy captain; Sgt. R. L. Coulson of the Marines, C. T. Brewer, pharmacists mate second class, Cpl. Chas. W. Brimmer and Cpl. C. G. Battles of the Marines and Pat Herndon, a civilian contractor and Stewart. The guard, when requested to open the windows, only laughed because commander Cunningham was on the floor, recovering from an illness and diarrhea and Sgt. Coulson, also on the floor, recovering from typhus, both extremely weak from their illness and suffering from the extreme heat, had fainted. The remainder were also suffering from the intense heat and they decided to break out the windows, which they did.
A general alarm was given and Stewart and Brimmer were accused of breaking the windows. For this they were taken out into the brilliant sunshine, put in leather straight jackets and chains placed around their legs. The jackets were tightened to the last notch and then water poured over the jackets to make them stretch and cinched tighter, another hole being made in the straps. The pain in their chests were terrific. They were then dragged around the field by the chains on their legs, causing them to be badly bruised and disheartened. (word is unclear)
They were then laid in the sun, face up and the heat from the sun caused the jackets to shrink as the water dried out. More water was then applied. Battles, Brewer and Herndon were then brought out and they were subjected to the same torture treatment and laid in the sun, face up for over an hour. The pain was almost unbearable and the treatment they had used on the men caused the men to become sick and vomit, but they were made to remain on their backs all the while, and were abused by the guards, who kicked them, spit on them and cursed them.
When at last they were released from these jackets to their horror they were all blind and remained this way for three days, when their sight returned. Their muscles were extremely sore and Stewart had suffered a fracture from being kicked by one of the guards.
On August 1, they were transferred to the Peiping military prison. Everything they had gone through before was pink tea compared to what they were subjected to in this prison. On August 15, 1945 they were called out of their cells by the officer of the day and taken to the major, commanding the prison and he read them a proclamation: “You are now being released by the kindness and courtesy of the Japanese people. The war is over. We are so sorry for your treatment but due to the outstanding differences of our two countries we could not give you the treatment accorded to war prisoners of the Americans.” The officer had not advised them that japan had surrendered. He then asked them to salute him and as he bowed low the prisoners thumbed their noses.
They were then taken to the American refugee camp near Peiping where they contacted the American paratroopers. They were then flown from Peiping on August 22 to Sean, China, and then to Kunming, China, and hospitalized. Those in the group who were able to fly, were put aboard a plane, and flown to India, thence to Africa, and then to New York, where on September 5, Stewart was able for the first time in nearly six years to hear his mother’s voice, when he called her on the telephone.
Cpl. Stewart wears the good conduct medal, Asiatic-Pacific ribbon with two battle stars, and China-Burma-India theatre ribbon. He is now on a 90-day convalescent leave, but he has a total of 130 points and expects to be discharged in about 60 days. At the termination of his military service he expects to engage in business with his father in St. Louis.
Hal P. Mills became acquainted with Stewart in one of the prisons, when Mills was being held as a spy. He too, was subjected to much of the torture, and he and Stewart became friends, which friendship had been renewed. Mills, who is located in Kansas City, Mo., said he intends to return to China and resume the newspaper business just as soon as his passports come through. He is a member of the General Ward Post No. 1, American Legion post in that country. He has written several articles for the national Legion magazine. He was an United Press correspondent  in Shanghai for many years.